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Got the free Virgin Atlantic credit card? You can now get the paid Reward+ version too

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Virgin Atlantic is currently running a special sign-up bonus on its Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard. Click here for our full article and click here to apply.

As well as a 15,000 Virgin Points sign-up bonus, you will receive DOUBLE POINTS on your first £5,000 of spending or whatever you spend by 14th April, whichever comes first.

If you have the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard there is good news. Following a recent rule change, you can now apply for the Reward+ card too.

It’s not quite as simple as it sounds.

There is no ‘special’ application route. If you hold the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card, you can simply go to the application page here and apply.

(The only way to apply is by doing the ‘eligibility check’. You can’t go directly to the application form.)

If you pass the eligibilty check, you can complete your application. If you are accepted, you will receive the Reward+ card and the 15,000 Virgin Points bonus, plus the extra double points offer.

Note that you must not have applied for any other Virgin Money card in the last three months.

There are some snags though

There are a couple of things to note here.

  • You are NOT swapping your free Reward card for the paid-for Reward+ card. Unless you later choose to cancel your free Reward card, you will have two Virgin Atlantic credit cards.
  • You are NOT transferring your credit limit from the old card to the new card. You will get a fresh credit limit on the new card. You will be rejected for Reward+ if Virgin Money does not wish to increase the overall amount of credit you hold with it. There is no process for shifting your credit limit from one card to the other.
  • You are NOT transferring your ‘spend to date’ towards the annual companion and upgrade voucher to your new Reward+ card. You will be starting from scratch towards the £10,000 of spend needed to trigger the voucher. You can, of course, keep spending on your free Reward card as well in order to hit the £20,000 needed to earn the voucher on that card.

If the three points above are an issue for you, you can either cancel your existing Reward card before applying (but you risk being stuck with no Virgin Atlantic cards if you are rejected) or potentially reduce the credit limit on your free Reward credit card first in order to improve your chance of acceptance.

It is also possible that Virgin Money gives you a very small limit on your new Reward+ card if it is concerned about extending more credit. If this happens, you could request that your credit is reallocated between your free and paid card, or cancel the free card completely and then request an increase on Reward+.

Our full article on the current special offer on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ card is here and you can apply here.

The representative APR is 69.7% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 26.9% variable.

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club, Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

Comments (23)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ian says:
    12 Feb12 February 05:06

    I assume to swap to the free card from the paid one requires a new application or is there a way to actually swap the cards?

  • Jonathon says:
    12 Feb12 February 05:22

    I might be reading this wrong but is there not a contradiction between:

    “There is no process for shifting your credit limit from one card to the other.”

    And later:

    “ you could request that your credit is reallocated between your free and paid card”

    • Rob says:
      12 Feb12 February 08:18

      That’s not a ‘process’ it’s an ad-hoc request they may or may not listen no.

  • Andrew. says:
    12 Feb12 February 08:29

    This is an article about VMUK… People really need to manage their expectations!

  • Deependu Shukla says:
    12 Feb12 February 08:31

    Can one apply for the free card if you already have the Reward+ card, as I do, to get another upgrade voucher?

    • Rob says:
      12 Feb12 February 08:36

      Yes, you can do that too.

    • Jonathan says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:07

      You get one voucher per card, per card year.

      There was an exemption to this when during Covid, people who had the Plus card could obtain an UPGRADE ONLY voucher in addition to the normal voucher, although that was only for a limited timeframe and is long dead, many people probably do t remember it, all of the unique vouchers will’ve since expired if they were never used

  • Jay says:
    12 Feb12 February 08:46

    I’ve already done this, didn’t know it wasn’t known or openly offered. I’ve now reached the £20k spend to unlock the voucher but it’s not showing anywhere. I normally see it as a line on my activity within the Virgin Atlantic app, it pops up the moment I hit the £10k spend on the paid for card. Should I be checking anywhere else for this or does it only appear on the statement date for the free card?

    • NorthernLass says:
      12 Feb12 February 09:24

      My last one arrived about 3 months early, well before I’d spent £10k! Check back in your account in case this has happened to you as well. It’s a bit of a pain as it now has a much shorter shelf life than I was anticipating, but apparently Virgin are useless at sorting these things out 😐

  • Mr. AC says:
    12 Feb12 February 10:09

    Yup, I’m in this boat. 17k credit limit on the free card, eligibility checker for the paid card tells me to go away. So I’m stuck. I guess the next thing to do is to try calling VM CS?

    • ZW says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:16

      Happened to me too. First check told me no. Second round when it asked how much I want for a balance transfer and money transfer, I put 10k on both. approved.

    • Jonathan says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:18

      This is the whole swings and roundabouts of credit cards and how eligible you are to the (potentially) lending bank

    • Mr. AC says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:12

      I called them… And they can’t help in any way. They can’t see the reason for rejection so can’t guarantee or advise if closing the free card or lowering the credit limit on it would help in any way. I guess I can try sending physical mail? However previously you could apply, be rejected and you had an application reference number. Now it doesn’t even let you apply so I’m doubtful they’d be able to reverse anything.

  • gundam says:
    12 Feb12 February 10:55

    This is good. Back to the when it first launched and you can hold both cards.

    • Sandgrounder says:
      12 Feb12 February 18:20

      Even when you couldn’t hold both cards, I managed to hold both cards. Down to the free one since Covid, might go for the paid one again.

  • Daisy says:
    14 Feb14 February 07:29

    A few months back, I had the free card. I phoned to cancel that one and said I wanted the paid for. Lady cancelled the free card on the phone. I went online ordered paid card and the following month received a 30,000 bonus. Couldn’t believe my luck. A few months after that got an upgrade voucher. I think somehow, they had transferred my spend over from my free one. Just wish I could get more than 1 voucher per year.

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